Charter School Commission Executive Director Tom Hutton is stepping down after three years on the job, having put in place a new accountability system for charter schools and overseen the contentious closure of one of the state’s oldest charter campuses.
He and commission staff have been harshly criticized in recent months by some charter school leaders for what they consider inordinate and intensive scrutiny of their operations. On the other hand, the state Office of the Auditor, in a study issued in December, faulted the commission for not acting quickly or forcefully enough to shut down Halau Lokahi for financial insolvency.
Hutton announced his plans to resign in a Feb. 5 letter to the commission that was sent this week to the state’s 34 charters, which are public schools managed by independent governing boards. No date has been set, but it is expected in a few weeks. Commissioners said they are sorry to see him go.
“I’m personally very sad to hear about the decision,” Vice Chairwoman Karen Street said Thursday at the commission’s meeting. “I do respect the courage Tom has shown and also the leadership as he’s taken us through a tumultuous beginning. I wish he were not leaving, personally, because I think he’s added tremendous value.”
Hutton was the first executive director of the commission, which was created as part of sweeping reform legislation passed in 2012 for charters after a couple of school administrators were faulted for hiring their relatives and apparent misuse of public funds.
The commission replaced the Charter School Review Panel, which had churned through six executive directors in nine years. Hutton’s three-year tenure is twice as long as the average of his predecessors at the panel.
In his letter, Hutton said it was time for someone new with “fresh patience and stamina.”
“The process of putting into place the basic infrastructure of a functioning charter school system has been time-consuming and arduous,” he wrote. “In other professional settings, the turnaround specialist frequently is not best positioned to lead the organization after some of the more painful turnaround tasks have been completed.”
In the past three years, the commission has established performance contracts with renewal criteria, both academic and financial, for all schools, and instituted a rigorous application process to approve new charter schools.
Alvin Parker, principal of Ka Waihona o ka Na‘auao in Waianae, and a former chairman of the Charter School Review Panel, says Hutton had a tough job from the start. After enjoying autonomy for many years, charter schools were forced to come to terms with stricter regulation.
“Tom came on during a very contentious period,” he said. “Much of the situation was not of his making. He was the guard dog that was sent in to guard the entrance. … I think that his resignation comes at a time where there is a tremendous amount of criticism directed at him. Some criticism is warranted. He was heavy-handed with many of the schools.”
Members of the Board of Education conducted a “listening tour” to hear concerns from charter schools about the commission in November and December. Critics said the commission was focused on compliance and burdensome reporting rather than innovation and advocacy for the schools.
Commission member Mitch d’Olier said at Thursday’s meeting that there appears to be a misunderstanding of the role of the commission as authorizer of charter schools.
“I think there’s a lot of confusion in the state about what an authorizer is,” he said. “It’s a really tricky political situation, particularly for staff, but for all of us, because authorizers are about accountability in terms of educational performance and they are about accountability in terms of finance. What we’ve done so far is pretty much what authorizers do around the country.”
Daniel Caluya, school director of Na Wai Ola on Hawaii island, was at the meeting and said he appreciated Hutton’s efforts on behalf of charters.
“He has served the state of Hawaii faithfully,” he said. “We are very sad that he’s going to be leaving — I am, our school. I wish he had stayed a little bit longer so we could right our ship. The facilities funding piece is a big part of it — equity for charter schools. Tom was a champion of that.”
